Vikings creator explains why the show is ending – and hints at "continuation" series

However, the History show's creator Michael Hirst has opened up on why he's ending it now, and teased a bit about the planned "continuation" series.

"I always knew where I wanted the show to go and more or less where it would end if I was given the opportunity," he explained to Variety. "What I was trying to do was write the saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons.

Bernard Walsh/History

"After six seasons and 89 episodes, that’s what I felt — finally — I’d done. We stopped shooting the final episode in November last year and I felt that I’d said all I needed to say about Ragnar and his sons.

"I told my saga, and I’d been very fortunate to be given that opportunity by MGM and History. I had no reason to want to continue it beyond that. But, there are 20 new episodes to come.

"We visit three new worlds in those episodes, we go through great tragedies and great heroism, and if you have tears to weep, be prepared to weep them as you watch Season 6. I’m very proud of the show. I did what I wanted to do, that’s the truth."

Bernard Walsh/History

Hirst added: "I don’t want people to think the show is ending anytime soon because it’s not. Later this year we’ll see the first part of Season 6. I’m desperate for people to see it because it is the most ambitious and intensely emotional episodes of Vikings ever.

"Each season I set new challenges for production and they always meet them. Each season I up the ante and they always do it – whatever it is I ask them to do. A lot of what we shoot is real, it’s not CGI, and the way production manages to realize what I put on paper is transcendental.

"It’s incredible, it’s fantastic. So we have new worlds, new landscapes, new characters… and the scope just seems to be bigger. As are a lot of the issues.

"We’re on a world stage now with the Vikings, so everything is greater and more significant. And I swear to all the fans. It is a truly, deeply, emotional experience so I look forward to people watching it."

The creator also spoke about the planned new series beyond season six, revealing: "Well, it’s not a spin-off. We’re talking about a continuation series, which I’m still going to be very involved with. Jeb Stuart is the other writer and it is exciting, but my main focus was on my characters.

History / Jonathan Hession

"I have to say that they’re not characters to me. I write so much about them, I’ve lived with them for seven years. They’re real people to me. So I care, and have been caring, about them for a long time. I want to guide them through whatever storylines they have.

"That was my principle objective — to do justice to these incredible characters I found in history and helped to create onscreen. So no. I wasn’t thinking about the future particularly when I was dealing with my people, my characters, my beloved Vikings."

Elaborating further, he said: "Continuation means, that if we make it, it will be connected to my saga. It may not involve necessarily the same characters. I can’t go into more details than that, but for the fans of the show it will be a continued enjoyment of the Vikings experience."

Hirst also confirmed that Valhalla will not be a feature of the continuation series, despite previously mentioning exploring it, admitting that it became an "in-joke".

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